~ Ishida Uryuu: Filia doesn't know exactly what he does just yet, but respects any human who fights demons. The fact that he says his family's been doing it for generations is also a plus. Might be worth allying with later.

~ Rosalyn: Filia likes her dedication, but doesn't completely understand the 'hero' thing. Once again, another human that might be worth allying with.

~ Momoko: Haven't technically met yet (although I'm about to change that, playercest be damned). I think they'd disagree on how to handle demons, and otherwise get along. She'd automatically get respect for serving the Gods in her world.

Humans:

~ Ari: What a sweet boy! ♥

~ Lu Xun: Another nice human! ♥

~ Lupin: What a nice man, and a wonderful tour guide! He seems rather helpful!

~ Nishi: Another helpful local!

~ Kabuto: Kabuto makes Filia nervous with the way he keeps asking about her tail. She's worried that he could possibly be a dragon hunter, or else someone untrustworthy.

~ Near: Friendly villager, how nice!

~ Wednesday: Strange girl.

~ Uotani: Stranger than Wednesday.

~ Nokoru: What a polite young man! He seems very sweet, but unfortunately doesn't quite understand exactly why Mazoku are a *bad* thing.

~ Itachi: Filia's not quite sure *what* to make of Itachi just yet - he did have that residual energy on him, on the one hand. On the other, it wasn't Mazoku, and it wasn't strong. May just be an unlucky human, but still someone to be wary of for the time being.

~ Xellos: You have to ask? Filia mistrusts Xellos instinctively - every word out of his mouth, she will automatically interperet to be either an outright lie or an attempt at manipulation. Every great once in a while, he'll do something that puzzles her and completely takes her aback (from the series, saving her life in Alto/Baritone, and from camp, flipping up her skirt and commenting on her panties), which causes her to stop arguing long enough for him to get another jab in.

Oh, and uhh, did I mention she feels threatened by him? Because she totally does. She knows she's outnumbered here, and it's begun to worry her - especially without the ability to transform in camp.

~ Yuusuke: Doesn't seem to be allied with Xellos, and that's a good thing. He seems very powerful, and Filia will be keeping a wary eye on him - she doesn't trust him yet, but is calm enough about it not to attack him verbally or physically.

~ Shuichi: What the fuck was that?! Another one she's suspicious of, but not hostile towards.

~ Naruto: PERVERT! She'll probably have forgotten he yanked on her tail by the next time she meets him, but he's in a little less of her good graces than Shuichi or Yuusuke.

~ Raenef: Filia's deemed him harmless, and will probably in fact work to keep Xellos from manipulating him too much. Besides, he's adorable.

~ Gwendal: Serious culture shock, yo. Filia still can't quite comprehend him at all - all the talk of Mazoku lords that don't serve Shaburanigdo and apparently don't have any dark aura confounds her. Is he just a deluded human that's pretending to be a Mazoku, or is he from a very strange world in which there are just regular humans called Mazoku? He might be worth poking at and trying to keep Xellos' hands off of.

Some general things about Filia and her background that I thought I'd share. Anything I've not deduced on my own, I probably got from kuchenhexe - seriously, between the two of us, we've wasted an entire life analyzing Filia.

Filia and other races

You may have noticed - Filia's a bit of a racist. It's honestly not because she's a bad person; she's just horribly sheltered. She notes in the first few episodes that she's not used to being around humans - as a matter of fact, you could probably extrapolate that she's never left the temple of the Fire Dragon King for more than a short period of time before the events of Try. All she's ever been around are dragons, and the elders at her temple are... high-and-mighty, to put it lightly.

To Filia, dragons are obviously the superior race. Humans and beastmen are less superior, and Mazoku are, well, in her own words "raw garbage". This is not arrogance on her part - it's merely 'the way things are', as it was taught to her by the elders. At the point in the series I've pulled her from, she's beginning to question this, along with many other things that she was taught during her upbringing at the temple of the Fire Dragon King. She's grown fond of Lina and her posse (even though she wouldn't outright admit it, and never in front of them!), and is generally open to speaking to, well, just about anybody except for Mazoku!

Which is why, you might have noticed, if your character is human, Filia has tried to generally be polite but aloof. If your character is some kind of demon, Mazoku, or yokai, well - expect lots of screaming until you beat it into her head that you're not from her world. Yes, you have to do this - she's very stubborn. She generally distrusts Mazoku on instinct (with good reason!), but will usually not attack unless they either provoke her verbally (watch how Xellos does this - he's really the master) or are doing something to be attacked (attacking others, messing with her tail, attacking her). If asked, however, she sees nothing wrong with a pre-emptive strike!

Filia and magic

In the Slayers world, there are three kinds of magic: white, black, and Shamanist. White magic is healing and purification spells, black magic is your standard attack spells (they either draw on the power of negative emotions, or in some cases, Mazoku lords), and Shamanist magic draws on the five elements (fire, water, air, earth, and spirit).

Under the header of 'white magic', there's a special category - holy magic. These are attack spells that draw on holy power, and have been lost to humans for hundreds of years. Filia uses one of these twice in the course of Try - Chaotic Disintegrate, which is a spell used to damage Mazoku (my icon is Filia casting Chaotic Disintegrate at Valgaav, btw). But the long and short of it is that Filia (and the other dragons at the temple of the Fire Dragon King) are proficient in the use of these holy spells.

If your character has a dark aura - that is, they have a lot of evil energy - Filia will be able to sense it. The only exceptions would probably be if your character can lock that energy away - Slayers Mazoku really have no reason to, as humans can't sense this. I believe the Naruto characters can clamp down on the demons that inhabit their souls (or whatever), and the YYH characters can do this too? Maybe? Not sure. Just let me know on a case-by-case basis whether she should pick anything up!

Filia and relationships

Filia, believe it or not, is actually quite the romantic. She likes sappy, tragic love stories, and will actually volunteer to help lovers in need. Although, honestly, I don't think she understands relationships or being in love at all - no indication of this was given in the series at all. Don't expect Filia to understand being hit on - it goes right over her head.

From the fact that she's the daughter of a high priest (whether this was Saichuro/Supreme Elder or not, no one is certain - his actual name is never given, but I wouldn't put it past the bastard to screw his own daughter over like that), we can discern that her order does not practice celibacy. There isn't, however, any indication of their attitudes towards love and marriage. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that they *do* believe in marriage, but whether they believe in love going along with it or not is another story. Knowing the temple that Filia comes from, it's entirely probable that they give a great deal of lip-service to the ideals of love and marriage, but don't really uphold the love parts very well (as in, people do their duty, don't question it, and repress a lot of stuff).

Filia and that big friggin' mace

The mace that Filia keeps under her skirt is her primary weapon - she'll whip that out at the drop of a hat to keep people in line. It's faster and cleaner than actually using magic (or transforming, godsforbid), and makes a better, heh, impression.

Keep in mind that if Filia swings her mace at you that it's for comedic purposes only. It's not going to debilitate your character in any way (it shouldn't, really - if you want a concussion, go for it), as the characters that get maced in Try are usually stunned for a few seconds and then right back up. It packs a punch, but it's not going to kill anyone. And really, the only characters that should be able to dodge her mace are those that can teleport (like Xellos - for as many times as she draws the thing on him, she never does actually manage to hit him) or move very, very fast (I could see Impulse getting away from it). But to be fair, she probably won't try to mace anyone too delicate to take it, anyway.

And for the record, flipping Filia's skirt up or touching her tail will earn you a macing. YES, NARUTO, I'M LOOKING AT YOU. XD

Filia and tea

I'm afraid that part is never even explained in Try. The tea set just *is*. Don't question it.

I thought I'd take a minute to address something that I see happening in camp a lot, now that we're getting a good deal of people from already-established fandoms in camp - that is, the need a few players feel to automatically establish their fandom pairing in CFUD. (for the record, do whatever you want with your own characters, I'm not bothered by it - I just want to put on the record how I intend to play in this instance since I feel it's a special case)

First of all, if you're not familiar with Slayers fandom, I'll sum it up this way: For the past ten years, Slayers fandom has generated geysers of spooge over pairing wank wars. I still maintain that FMA fandom isn't as wanky as Slayers pairing wars are. And yes, they still continue to this day - "ZOMG You persecute the Zel/Ame shippers!" "I never said a damn word about Amelia!" "UR evul!" "Yeah, well your pairing sucks Zel/Lina ruels!"

And yes - Xellos with *anybody* is still hotly contested. And also yes, my fandom OTP *is* Xellos/Filia, which has been known to piss people off simply by existing on the interwebs. (I even have a tattoo for this pairing shut up I am not a loser) And yes, I did in fact app as Filia because Xellos is just so damn awesome - the deal with that, however, is that Filia had been one of my first choices for an app, even before Momoko. The problem was that something like 3/4 of her humor comes from her interactions with Xellos. And at the time I applied as Momoko, we had no Xellos, nor even any KKM Mazoku for her to bounce off of - so all you'd get to see would be "nice, sweet, sometimes domineering Filia that likes to have tea". Which would be boring.

However, I'd like to address the concern that some players (and audience) may have that I only apped Filia to get in and cling to Xellos (no one has said anything as such to me, I just figured that it might worry some Slayers fans, and I wanted to get everything out in the open up front). Frankly, I've seen so much bad Xel/Fil RP that I couldn't do that even if I wanted to - playing fanfic isn't really much fun and doesn't really contribute to making the game fun *or* long-lived.

I'd also like to state that I'm not averse to pairing Filia with anyone, least of all Xellos - but I'm not going to do it without it being believable, nor do I feel obligated to. I don't play roundheels!Filia, and I think she's a great character even without being paired with anyone (as is the rest of the Slayers cast, really. It's just unfortunate that the rest of fandom doesn't see it that way). If she doesn't get paired with anyone at all, it wouldn't break my heart.

So in short - if you're expecting automatic Xel/Fil from me, you're going to be disappointed. And if you're dreading automatic Xel/Fil from me... you'll be pleasantly surprised? I guess?